Boca Raton or Myrtle Beach?

These are two fine beaches of very different shapes. Boca Raton's shore is a series of separate public beach parks on a barrier island, low-rise and backed by dunes and sea grape. At Red Reef Park a rocky reef lies close enough to snorkel straight from the sand, and the sea is warm enough to swim in all year.

Myrtle Beach has one continuous ribbon of wide, flat sand running about 100km along the Grand Strand. In the centre it is lined with towers, piers and a boardwalk, and it gets calmer towards Surfside and the state parks. The water is greenish and the surf small and shallow, ideal for paddling children, but swimming is for the warm months only.

Neither is a place to travel for food, but Boca Raton has a little more range. Around Mizner Park and Royal Palm Place you will find steakhouses, Italian dining rooms and sushi. There is stone crab in season and a strong tradition of Jewish delis and bagel bakeries. Delray Beach's Atlantic Avenue is next door when you want more variety.

Myrtle Beach's own strip is mostly seafood buffets, pancake houses and chains. Its best eating is just outside town, at the waterfront places of Murrells Inlet and in the lightly fried Calabash style to the north, with shrimp and grits on many menus.

In Boca Raton the town itself is the main exhibit, which gives it a clearer sense of place. Addison Mizner planned it during the 1920s land boom as a Mediterranean Revival resort, and you can still see that plan if you walk from the arcaded, tile-roofed Old Town Hall, now a small history museum, to the grand pink hotel on the waterway. The art museum in Mizner Park adds another stop. Just north, the Morikami gardens tell the unexpected story of Japanese settlers who farmed nearby early in the twentieth century. That is a pleasant day or two before you start looking to Miami or Palm Beach.

Myrtle Beach's culture sits in one place outside town rather than in its streets. Brookgreen Gardens turns an old rice plantation into a sculpture park under live oaks and faces the history of the enslaved people who worked it, while Atalaya's Moorish winter house stands beside it in the neighbouring state park. Back in the city there is little beyond a small art museum, so a single day covers it all.

Myrtle Beach is where you go out. In summer the oceanfront blocks around the boardwalk fill with beach bars and rooftop decks, the entertainment complexes have dance clubs that stay open late, and the long-standing clubs of North Myrtle Beach still dance the shag. It is loud and casual, and much of it closes early out of season.

Evenings in Boca Raton mostly mean dinner and a glass of wine on the outdoor terraces of Mizner Park, and the city is quiet before midnight. Later nights mean a short drive to Delray Beach or a longer one to Fort Lauderdale.

Both sit on flat coastal land, but they are good for different things outdoors. Boca Raton's outdoors is mostly the sea: snorkelling and diving on the nearshore reef, Gulf Stream fishing charters for sailfish, sea turtle night walks at Gumbo Limbo, and alligators at the Loxahatchee refuge half an hour inland.

Myrtle Beach is the place for marsh and swamp. Huntington Beach State Park is a fine birdwatching spot with herons and ospreys, and you can kayak through the cypress swamps of the Waccamaw River. The dozens of golf courses along the Grand Strand are a big draw of their own.

Boca Raton is better placed for days out. Palm Beach's Flagler Museum and Worth Avenue are about forty minutes away, and Fort Lauderdale is half an hour. Miami's Art Deco district, Little Havana and Vizcaya are an hour away, and you can reach them by Tri-Rail or Brightline train without a car.

Myrtle Beach has one standout outing, historic Charleston, but it is two hours each way. Closer options are smaller: the old port of Georgetown, Pawleys Island and Conway's riverwalk, all by car only.

Myrtle Beach was built around the family vacation and it shows. Children get shallow water and wide sand, resort hotels with lazy rivers and kitchen suites, an aquarium, water parks, an old wooden roller coaster and mini-golf courses with volcanoes and pirate ships. Spring break weeks are the time to avoid.

Boca Raton is calm and safe, with lifeguarded beach parks, a gentle first snorkel at Red Reef, turtle tanks at Gumbo Limbo and Sugar Sand Park. Bigger outings such as Lion Country Safari are an hour's drive away.

You will need a car in either place, because both spread out along wide multi-lane roads and local buses are of little use. The difference is in the exceptions. Boca Raton has Tri-Rail and Brightline trains for car-free trips down the coast, plus a walkable centre around Mizner Park.

Myrtle Beach has no useful trains, and Kings Highway clogs in summer. Within the boardwalk blocks, though, you can walk, cycle or use a golf cart, and the beach itself makes a long promenade.

Boca Raton is the better place to shop. Its big enclosed mall is among the most upscale in Florida, full of designer labels and leading department stores. Mizner Park and Royal Palm Place add open-air boutiques and galleries, and Worth Avenue in Palm Beach is an easy outing.

Myrtle Beach is about bargains rather than luxury: two large outlet centres, giant beachwear and souvenir shops, and the Market Common. Its most local find is the sweetgrass baskets sold along the coast road to the south.

Myrtle Beach costs considerably less. Its sheer number of motels and condos keeps rates down, many rooms have kitchens, and outside July and long weekends oceanfront stays can be very cheap. Attractions, golf and meals still cost what they do anywhere in America.

Boca Raton is expensive, with winter hotel rates like those of a major international city and restaurants priced for a wealthy local crowd. You also pay to park at the beach parks. Its cheaper months are the hot, stormy summer, the very season when Myrtle Beach is at its priciest.

Boca Raton's stages lean towards the arts, while Myrtle Beach's lean towards the show. In Boca you get open-air concerts and the yearly Festival of the Arts at the Mizner Park Amphitheater, recitals from the Lynn University conservatory, Broadway-style musicals and a local ballet, mostly in winter. For opera or a major orchestra, people go to the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach.

Myrtle Beach goes in for polished family evenings. Big theatres stage country, gospel and Christmas revues and comedy, there are dinner shows with knights or pirates, and touring country and rock acts play the main entertainment complex. There is no classical music or serious drama to speak of.

Boca Raton is the more restful place. The whole town is slow and orderly, and the large resort hotels have full spas, with yoga studios and day spas around the city for a health-conscious crowd.

Myrtle Beach has spa rooms at oceanfront and golf resorts, but its summer strip is noisy and car-bound. For real quiet you need Pawleys Island or the spring and autumn shoulder seasons. Neither town has thermal water or a bathhouse tradition.